The History of Sexuality

The History of Sexuality is the title of a three-volume series of books by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault written between 1976 and 1984. Originally published in French, the volumes are individually titled The Will to Knowledge (Histoire de la sexualité, 1: la volonte de savoir), The Use of Pleasure (Histoire de la sexualite, II: l'usage des plaisirs), and The Care of the Self (Histoire de la sexualité, III: le souci de soi). Thr... more

The History of Sexuality is the title of a three-volume series of books by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault written between 1976 and 1984. Originally published in French, the volumes are individually titled The Will to Knowledge (Histoire de la sexualité, 1: la volonte de savoir), The Use of Pleasure (Histoire de la sexualite, II: l'usage des plaisirs), and The Care of the Self (Histoire de la sexualité, III: le souci de soi). Three volumes of The History of Sexuality were published before Foucault's death in 1984. The first and most referenced volume, The Will to Knowledge (previously known as An Introduction in English—Histoire de la sexualité, 1: la volonté de savoir in French) was published in France in 1976, and translated in 1977, focusing primarily on the last two centuries, and the functioning of sexuality as an analytics of power related to the emergence of a science of sexuality (scientia sexualis) and the emergence of biopower in the West. In this volume he... less